Nancy Thomas Gross Turk was born in Pope County, Illinois 3 September 1873, daughter of Daniel Thomas and Amanda Vandegriff. In 1888, at the age of 15 years, she married William Perry Gross and over a period of 18 years gave birth to seven children, six of whom survived to adulthood.
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If her age in this newspaper article is correct, and she was 80 years old, and she died in 1965 at the age of 92, the undated article would have been written in 1953. It might have appeared in the Poplar Bluff newspaper. Searching for the reporter and photographer, Velma and Al Daniel, might lead to the name of the publication.
This is one of the quilts made by Great Grandmother Nancy. In many places the pieces don’t quite match up and the stitching is rather irregular so it seems that this was probably one of the last quilts she made well into her nineties when her eyesight had become poor and her old hands didn’t work so well.
The quilt pictured above is a lot older, maybe from the 1940’s or 1950’s. This was used at our house on South Walnut Street in Belleville, Pennsylvania. I wonder which fabric pieces were donated by her neighbors.
In the photo above, we see Nancy, second from left, with three of her children: Leander (Lee), Lavona Alice, and Alvin Gerald. This picture might have been taken in Williamsville, Missouri. If someone could give me approximate dates for the cars, I would appreciate it. That would help to give a date for the photo.
In the summer of 1964, we went to Chicago to attend the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association. After the convention, we drove to Florissant, Missouri, to visit my father’s relatives: Uncle Gerald, Aunt Eva and Nancy, Daddy’s grandmother.
I can’t remember hearing her speak when we were there. Maybe she suffered some dementia late in life or maybe she was hard of hearing.
Nancy is buried next to her son and daughter-in-law in Poplar Bluff City Cemetery in Poplar Bluff, Butler County, Missouri. Although I only heard him referred to as George, the stone is engraved with the name ‘Alvin G.’. Eva’s maiden name was Middleton.